Not the first guy to be disillusioned with the ideals of his youth and turn his back on them. Adams led a Black unit in the war and didn't think much of his troops. And like many a Northern member of the old elite, he hated the new industrial rich and came to look back on the older America and its southern leadership with nostalgia.
The house CFA III (the nephew, rather than the son) built burned down last month. The blaze was truly spectacular:
Oliver Wendell Holmes, like Adams a Union combat veteran, ended up sharing an opinion somewhat similar to Charles Francis Adams Jr.
I couldn’t locate the quote of his that I was looking for just now but here’s another touching on the war:
“We believed that it was most desirable that the North should win, we believed in the principle that the Union is indissoluable, we, or many of us at least, also believed that the conflict was inevitable, and that slavery had lasted long enough. But we equally believed that those who stood against us held just as sacred conviction that were the opposite of ours, and we respected them as every men with a heart must respect those who give all for their belief.”